Ron Adams in Celtics’ fold as assistant coach

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WALTHAM – Former Chicago Bulls lead assistant coach Ron Adams, widely considered one of the top assistants in the NBA, will be joining the Celtics in a similar role, a league source confirmed to the Globe Monday.

Adams has more than two decades of NBA experience, making him a valuable addition for Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who has none.

“He’s as good as there is in the business,” an NBA head coach said of Adams. “He’ll help Brad out a lot. It’s a great hire.”

In Chicago, Adams was the lead assistant to Tom Thibodeau, the former Celtics assistant coach and Adams’s longtime friend.

The Bulls did not renew Adams’s contract this offseason, though it was unclear why.

In Boston, Adams joins a staff that includes assistants Jay Larranaga and Jamie Young, who were with the Celtics last season, as well as Micah Shrewsberry, who was Stevens’s assistant at Butler University. Shrewsberry was most recently an assistant coach at Purdue.

However, the Celtics could lose Larranaga, as the Philadelphia 76ers are interviewing him for their vacant head coaching position, league sources said. Larranaga was also a candidate for the Celtics head-coaching job.

Adams was sought after by several other teams, including, a league source said, the Los Angeles Clippers, who are now coached by former Celtics coach Doc Rivers. Adams also had coaching stints with the 76ers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Milwaukee Bucks.

It’s expected that Stevens will add one or two more coaches to his staff this offeseason.

Spat downplayed

Kris Humphries and Rajon Rondo had a physical spat that spilled into the stands last season when Brooklyn and Boston faced off. Now, the two are set to be teammates on the Celtics.

“If you look at it, it really was nothing,” Humphries said of the altercation, when he was introduced at the Celtics training facility. The Celtics acquired the forward in a massive deal with the Nets that sent Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and others to Brooklyn in exchange for several players and draft picks.

“We’ll come in and obviously I’ve got to do my part to earn his respect in terms of playing hard and contributing to the team and we’ll just go from there,” Humphries said.

Bogans excited

At 31, Keith Bogans will be one of the older Celtics, and said his role will be more like a coach on the floor and in the locker room.

But to be with the team as it begins a rebuild will also be new for him.

“I definitely think it will be motivating, to see some of the comments that the media is talking about, that we’re basically going to throw the season away when that’s not the case,” Bogans said.

“I think we’re going to come out and surprise a lot of people and we’re going to play hard. With the tradition that you have here, you have no choice but to play hard.”

There is a segment of Celtics fans who want the team to “tank” next season to try to land a top pick in the 2014 draft.

“I don’t think they’ll like me all that much then,” Bogans said.

Productive visit

“We just sat down for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes and I thought had a nice sit-down,” Stevens said. “We talked a lot about life. We talked a lot about basketball. We hit on neither exclusively, right. We just talked.

“I found him to be very insightful, very intelligent. And that was consistent to what I had heard from those who knew him best. I’m really looking forward to spending more time together.

“I know he’s working really hard on his rehab, and he was actually at rehab, then came back to his camp and then we both spoke to camp real briefly then I took off. He was great.”

Another signing?

Though there have been rumors about the Celtics possibly signing 6-foot-11-inch Brazilian center Vitor Faverani, Celtics president of basketabll operations Danny Ainge said, “We are still in discussions . . . that’s all I know.”

Yahoo! Sports reported Monday that the center had agreed in principle to a three-year deal with the Celtics.

In 23 games with a professional team in Spain last season, Faverani, 25, averaged 9.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 17 minutes per game.

“We’ve followed him, we’ve seen him play for a few years,” Ainge said.

When asked whether the Celtics would need to clear roster space before potentially signing Faverani, Ainge said, “It’s all part of the process, yeah. A lot of moving parts.”

Pressey deal on hold

The Celtics will invite free agent guard Phil Pressey to their training camp following a strong showing at the Orlando Summer League, but Ainge said they’re still in the conversation phase with him in terms of potentially signing Pressey to a short-term deal. Pressey, an undrafted point guard from Missouri, averaged 9.4 points and 6.6 points for the Celtics’ summer league team last week. His father, Paul, was a former assistant coach for the Celtics . . . Rivers chose to keep his family at their home in Winter Park, Fla., instead of moving them to Boston. Stevens has different ideas, and plans to relocate his family from Indianapolis. “No question that they will be here,” he said, “and we’re looking forward to being part of the community.” . . . Ainge said no decision has been reached on the future of Colton Iverson, the 53d pick in the draft whom the Celtics acquired in a draft-night deal with Indiana. The option is still on the table for the bruising 7-footer to play overseas for a season if the Celtics can’t clear enough roster space for him.

Baxter Holmes can be reached at baxter.holmes@globe.com. Gary Washburn of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.